Md. First Lady (R): She Would 'Shoot Britney Spears'

[Paragon]

http://www.local6.com/entertainment/2537264/detail.html

FREDERICK, Md. -- A spokeswoman for Maryland's first lady, Kendel Ehrlich, says the governor's wife made an "inadvertent figure of speech" last Friday when she spoke about shooting singer Britney Spears.

Ehrlich was speaking at a domestic violence prevention conference at Frederick's Hood College when she commented on the need to educate young women so they won't be dependent on others.

In remarks taped by WFMD Radio, the first lady said, "If I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would."

"As a working mother raising a 4-year-old son, the first lady has concerns about the negative influences that the entertainment industry can have on young children and teenagers," said Ehrlich's spokeswoman Meghann Siwinski in a statement on Tuesday. "During a public appearance, she inadvertently used a figure of speech to express those concerns."

[Must_B_Free]

1. Maybe after Arnold is allowed to to run for President

we will have state sanction to shoot people who we view as a threat to our culture.

That's what this is about - changing the culture to allow then to get away with "shooting" people.

Chip by chip facism takes hold.

[tom_paine]

2. Typical Freeper.

Monster.

Perhaps one day she'll get her opportunity, with the full blessings of the Empire.

[Interrobang]

3. I feel for her.

I can certainly sympathise with the sentiment, although I think were I in her position I might have been a little less impolitic than to mention it out loud. Spears is just another symptom of the 20-year (or so) backlash against feminism in specific and females in general -- the mysogynistic forces simply appropriated the discourse and inoculated dumb sluts like Spears with the idea that "it's *empowering* to take your clothes off," (uh huh, sure it is, honey, now why don't you get undressed?). That way, they still get to treat females like eye-candy and make the dumb ones feel good about it at the same time.

Life is deeply FUBARred.

[Craig Roberts]

5. RE: I feel for her

I agree. I'm getting a little spooked at the way influential right-wingers keep talking about shooting people who make them angry, but I think you are right about how the feminist ethos has been twisted and expropriated by misogynistic forces to sell "girl power" as the hip alternative to real empowerment. It sickens me too.

[baby_bear]

7. And I agree with you, Craig Roberts

The real danger of the current misogyny (in the U.S. anyway) is that so many girls are buying into it wholesale.

By the way, welcome to DU!
:hi:
s_m

[tlcandie]

36. Increasing talk of violence and actual violence in attacking those

whom you don't agree with is rising and it is alarming! Would someone just flush us now, please?!?!?

[Paragon]

8. There are plenty of schools of "feminism"

Being female herself, Britney has every right to exercise her brand of feminism (or not exercise it at all).

Wanting to do away with someone, no matter how innoculous the sentiment, is immature and intolerant.

[Selwynn]

13. Wow, shockingly well said Interrobang

It frustrates me than anyone who objects to the kind of casual attitude towards sex or gross objectification is anti-woman. Freedom from morality is not the same as freedom from oppression.

[Astarho]

14. Another POV

I'm not denying the anti-feminist aspect, but I see Britney as the result of corporate media control. The RIAA and other corporations are trying to make money off of everyone's most base sexual desires. Everyone uses it and our culture is inundated with it, hence everyone imitates it. But hey, they made their money, who cares what cultural damage they did.

Life is deeply FUBARred.

I completely agree.

[CBHagman]

32. I think "Life is deeply FUBARred" is the sentiment of the day.

N/T

[SemperEadem]

44. take your meds and lie down

slut
n.
A woman considered sexually promiscuous.
A woman prostitute.
A slovenly woman; a slattern.

97% of all dating-aged American females would then be considered sluts if they don't stay in one relationship and marry for life.

I don't think that anyone has any evidence that Spears lives up to the dictionary definition of slut. How she dresses, or how her handlers tell her how she will be packaged for sales has nothing to do with how she conducts her private life, of which you have no facts.

I am no fan of Spears, but I certainly will speak up when ignorance starts masquerading as learned fact.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. Apparently the irony is totally lost on Ehrlich and her spokeswoman

[prolesunited]

6. She is MORE of a threat to our society

than Britney Spears. It's bad enough that we have the Coulters, Savages, and Limbaughs of the world putting hatred and violence into the world in the national dialogue as they demonize their liberal "enemies."

Now, we have elected officials saying they would shoot someone. :wtf: This is not a "figure of speech." It is a threat! Any wonder why these freepers have become so emboldened as to attack nuns and protesters

If Ehrlich doesn't see anything wrong with her comment, she should resign. If she simply misspoke, she should resign because she's obviously not fit for leadership.

BTW, here's her Web page where you can contact her support staff:
http://www.gov.state.md.us/governorstaff.asp#firstlady

[cpa]

21. Kendel Ehrlich

I have been one of Ehrlich's most vocal critics in Maryland. I like your fire and passion. However, I must point something out to you. Kendel Ehrlich is not an elected official. She is the wife of Maryland's current governor. Therfore, she cannot " resign." her position unles she divorces Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
However, she has had problems like this before. She and her husband are just not geared for this high-level, highly visible position. I have been around the two of them and when he introduces her, it is like he is showing off a prize. The problem with both of the Ehrlichs is that they are both shallow people. Gov. Ehrlich got ahead by pleasing people, not because of his competence or ideas.
Normally, one would just say that she made an unfortunate choice of words to try to make a point. But considering the history both she and her husband have, that would not explain this.

[Bandit]

9. Bob Dole would not be a happy camper if she did that

;-)

[madrchsod]

10. maybe the dumb bitch

should find out who owns these little sluts..could it be the big money record companies ,who shovel money to the rethugs? and who`s running the riaa -a faithful republican hack. there`s alot of kids who hate this shit but they`ll never get to see what they like on mtv -bet..doesn`t sell candy bars and slut clothes.....

[peterh]

11. Typical over-reaction to figures that may or may not influence the young….

It happens with every generation….My dad couldn’t understand my like for the Grateful Dead….I couldn’t understand why my daughter liked punk-rock….but then, all one has to do is stop and think back….most kids tend to grow out of fads, role models, etc. and move on to the next interest without the catastrophic fears envisioned by a lot of parents.
I guess, without that fear campaigne, their argument would just fall flat….as it should.

[Selwynn]

12. To the best of my knoweldge, Spears has never....

promoted the idea of SHOOTING PEOPLE WE DISAGREE WITH. So personally, I'm concerned about the negative influecnes that REPUBLICANS can have on young children and teenagers.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

15. Republicans are Fascists!!!!!

Bitch!

[mumon]

16. threatened by... a belly button?

Well, as a working man, I have concerns about the negative influences Republicans have on young children and teenagers...

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1065528410163550.xml

Minister pleads guilty in online sex case

MARK LARABEE

A Wesleyan minister pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to traveling across state lines with the intention of engaging in sex with a minor.


The Rev. Thomas David James, former superintendent of the Wesleyan Church's Northwest District based in Vancouver, entered the plea in a deal with prosecutors. He was arrested in May as part of an ongoing FBI sting called "Innocent Images."

In an online chat room, James, 46, had arranged to meet a 13-year-old girl in the parking lot of a Northeast Portland convenience store. But his intended victim was an FBI agent posing as a girl, and James was arrested May 13 when he went to pick her up.

[truthseeker1]

17. Maybe she should come out here to CA

and shoot Arnold instead. I think super violent movies are way worse than showing a little skin every now and then. Leave Britney alone.

[JackSwift]

18. Of course they would and will shoot us

as soon as they can. They mention it often enough, don't they. That's why I've changed my position on gun ownership. I think every one of us should own a gun (safely). They talk about killing liberals more often than the Nazis talked about killing Jews.

[Romulus]

34. "keep your powder dry"

JackSwift, welcome to the "darkside." Make sure you remember the key word -safety.

I've got your back, 'cuz. :toast:

There are a lot of us here looking out for each other -just in case.

[donotpassgo]

19. YOU MEANT WHAT YOU SAID YOU STUPID BEEE-YATCH

There was no slip of the tongue. "If I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would" is not a figure of freakin speech. If I could punch you dead in the mouth I would.

Oh...I misspoke...what an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

[gratuitous]

20. Would it be fair to impute this comment to all Republicans?

Just a question. I know how Repressive Right propaganda spreads the brush of polemic pretty thick: All liberals are draft-dodgers or flag-burners, or blame-America-firsters. Heaven knows it's easier than thinking or parsing an argument.

I don't "blame America first." I blame Republicans first. I'm almost always right, so it saves a lot of time.

Curious that Mrs. Ehrlich, a working mother of a 4-year-old son, has such concerns about the entertainment industry. Doesn't she properly monitor her son's entertainment choices? And why is she working? Seems to me the job of governor should pay enough for her to stay home and take care of Little Murgatroyd. What's up with that?

[Voltaire99]

24. Ehrlich: Culture war stuff in the hands of an amateur

Sure, it's fair to lay this at the feet of the American right - Repugs, chiefly (but not only Repugs) who spread cultural intolerance like an STD across the body politic.

Ehrlich's just an impressionable amateur (see CPA's informed entry in this thread) who is trying to wield the flaming rhetoric of Coulter, Rush and O'Reilly. She's saying nothing they aren't, albeit more clumsily and boorishly. I'm positive she means it; and in a sense, that makes her somewhat more dangerous than a mere media shaman. Because she belongs to an important food chain, which starts with the professional hystericals like Coulter and passes through leaders down to receptive yokels.

In a larger context, though, we can mark America's position culturally on August 8, 2003, by her outburst. We are a nation seriously in danger from our own extremists. This has long been true, yet never quite so much (in my lifetime, anyway) as now. Something was unleashed after 9/11, and this something - whether you call it rage, self-righteousness, vengeance, hatred - is a poison. It cannot be the foundation for a society. It doesn't work as discourse. Where it leads, inevitably and ferociously, is to destruction. Here and abroad.

Genies released from bottles don't go back in willingly. If we are going to repair our socio-political life, we have to start condemning this kind of violence - this wickedness on display so shamefully in Maryland.

[cpa]

38. Thanks For The compliment

Thank you for your kind words. I e-mailed Gov. Ehrlich and let him know my feelings.

[Peace_2_Everyone]

22. Oh God Pleazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzes

let this be the most hypocritical thing I have ever heard!

I fear it is not and the pukers will outdo it very shortly.

Ehrlich was speaking at a domestic violence prevention conference, the first lady said, "If I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would."

The pukers NEW enemy!

[Voltaire99]

23. So is this why the "Elevated" danger level is blinking...

on the Homeland Security Advisory System?

In fact, it's flashing away on Ehrlich's own web site tonight:
http://www.gov.state.md.us/Kendel/Kendelhome.asp

Run, Britney. The family values terrorist from Maryland is coming for you!

[saigon68]

28. Scare the shit out of the Voters thats what

Elevated security my ass. It is a tool to scare the feeble minded into agreeing with your ridiculous views.

I'll bet she has some real interesting takes on things like racial tolerance, mixed dating and rap music too.

[kodi]

25. threats of physcial violence are prosecutable crimes.

and subject the person to restrictions on possession of fire arms.

the woman should be prosecuted for a publicly made threat of voilence against spears.

this is no joking matter.

[Lars39]

39. I'd take a restraining order out for her.

[loyalsister]

26. A friend of mine said something similar

in reference to Phyllis Shlafly. She said that she was sitting a few feet away from her at some kind of hearing, and she thought "what if I just shot her?" or something. It was rhetorical. Sort of a pondering of "would it solve anything?" question. Kind of funny, I thought.

[dbt]

27. More of the Limbaugh Legacy!

After Raygun demonstrated that it was OK to hate "certain people," Pill-Boy took the premise and ran with it--unopposed and unchecked. "Conservatives good, Liberals baa-aad," he bleated every day.

Soon, the wannabes kicked in, unopposed and unchecked. Television followed the lead shortly, and now the great Melting Pot is full of Mutton from Sea to Shining Sea!

"Must. Shoot. Britney."

:freak:
dbt

[Dogmudgeon]

29. Why shoot Britney?

Spanking her would be so much more fun!

:spank:

--bkl
Just wait, Jamie-Lynn (BS's little sister) is starting her career.

[arwalden]

30. What An Embarrassment For Maryland...

... there's more to come. They've just gotten started.

-- Allen

[BenFranklinUSA]

31. Paper beats Rock; Guns beat Spears --n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

33. Shooting Someone Is A Figure Of Speech?

Huh? What rhetoric book would list a specific and non-metaphoric action such as this a figure of speech? More likely reason she would say it is that she's a loose-lipped nut!
The Professor

[Romulus]

35. hmmm

Was the same level of anger directed at Spike Lee after he made his comment about a desire to shoot Charleton Heston? :shrug:

Britney is hardly a liberal poster-girl.

Goose, gander, et al.

[cpa]

40. Irony

The irony of this incident is that I believe Brittany Spears is a very staunch Republican. I doubt kendel Ehrlich realized that.

[hyphenate]

37. Ehrlich is just too out there

A more appropriate response, considering the woman's place in saying the comment should have been something like "If I were Britney Spears' mother, I would try to show her that how she dresses is inappropriate considering how much of a role model she is supposed to be, and that by emphasizing her physical attributes she is just begging for one sided criticism about her sexuality, instead of allowing herself to be judged for far more important attributes." In addition, she could have stressed that women today, by allowing the media to continually push for such revealing and overt dress and manner, is keeping women in the more traditional role of "sex object" with no points for intelligence, no respect and no true appreciation.

[leesa]

41. Since when is saying that if you had a chance to shoot someone, you

would, a figure of speech?? Sounds like a statement to me.

[Pert_UK]

42. And the governor would shoot all over her.....

:evilgrin:

Sorry.....couldn't resist.

P.

[SemperEadem]

43. isn't that called "making a terrorist threat"?

So, why is she able to make a terrorist threat and get away with it? IF I was in Spears' circle of people, I'd be looking into what ways I could embarass this woman==make her out to be an unbalanced person who should be ordered into mental treatment or some kind of deprogramming because she is no better than that which she rails against.

[KamaAina]

45. Excuse me?! Didn't Maryland just have sniper attacks a year ago?

And now its First "Lady" is shooting off her mouth (sorry) making casual remarks about gun violence?! At a domestic violence workshop?!

What kind of man would marry someone like that?! Oh, right, a Repukkke...

[bushisanidiot]

46. Spoken Like A True Gun Toting Repuke 'Moran'

violent pukes.

[MODemocrat]

47. I'm more worried about ARNOLD's influence on children

Would Ehrlich dare say the same thing about Swartzenneger?" That's just what I thought. :think: